PTL 1 discloses a vehicle control device that detects the position of another vehicle ahead of the own vehicle and uses the relative position of the other vehicle with respect to the own vehicle to determine whether the other vehicle is a leading vehicle that should be the target of the following control.
In PTL 1, an own lane probability, which is a parameter for determining whether the other vehicle is the target leading vehicle of the following control, is associated with the other vehicle. Specifically, as a field for determining whether another vehicle is present in the path of the own vehicle, a probability map is set within a certain area on an imaginary plane (imaginary coordinate space) ahead of the own vehicle. In PTL 1, whether the other vehicle should be selected as the target leading vehicle of the following control is determined using the relative lateral position of the other vehicle with respect to the own vehicle on the set probability map. The relative lateral position of the other vehicle with respect to the own vehicle on the probability map is corrected based on the curvature of the path of the own vehicle.